Eisenstein, Sergei M., Aleksandrov, Grigorio, Barsky, Vladimir, Bobrov, Ivan, Gomorov, Mikhail, Levshin, Aleksandr	...	(Director)
Nina Agadzhanova	...	(Writer)
Aleksandr Antonov	...	Grigory Vakulinchuk
Vladimir Barsky	...	Commander Golikov
Grigori Aleksandrov	...	Chief Officer Giliarovsky
Ivan Bobrov	...	Young Sailor
Mikhail Gomorov	...	Militant Sailor
Aleksandr Levshin	...	Petty Officer
Beatrice Vitoldi	...	Woman With Baby Carriage
Vladimir Popov	...	Director of Photography
Sergei M. Eisenstein	...	Editor
Vasili Rakhals	...	Art Direction
Edmund Meisel	...	Original Music Composer
Eduard Tisse	...	Director of Photography
N. Poltavtseva	...	Woman With Pince-nez
Konstantin Feldman	...	Student Agitator
Prokopenko	...	Mother Carrying Wounded Boy
A. Glauberman	...	Wounded Boy
Brodsky	...	Student
Julia Eisenstein	...	Woman with Food for Sailors
Andrei Fajt	...	Recruit

Comments: DRUS 103.2

Summary: The Battleship Potemkin (Russian: Броненосец Потёмкин), sometimes rendered as The Battleship Potyomkin, is a 1925 silent film directed by Sergei Eisenstein and produced by Mosfilm. It presents a dramatised version of the Battleship Potemkin uprising that occurred in 1905 when the crew of a Russian battleship rebelled against their oppressive officers of the Tsarist regime.Potemkin has been called one of the most influential films of all time, and was named the greatest film of all time at the World's Fair at Brussels, Belgium, in 1958.The film is composed of five episodes: "Men and Maggots", in which the sailors protest at having to eat rotten meat; "Drama at the Harbour", in which the sailors mutiny and their leader, Vakulynchuk, is killed; "A Dead Man Calls for Justice" in which Vakulynchuk's corpse is mourned over by the people of Odessa; "The Odessa Staircase", in which Tsarist soldiers massacre the Odessans; and "The Rendez-Vous with a Squadron", in which the squadron ends up joining the sailors' side. Eisenstein wrote the film as a revolutionary propaganda film, but also used it to test his theories of "montage". The revolutionary Soviet filmmakers of the Kuleshov school of filmmaking were experimenting with the effect of film editing on audiences, and Eisenstein attempted to edit the film in such a way as to produce the greatest emotional response, so that the viewer would feel sympathy for the rebellious sailors of the Battleship Potemkin and hatred for their cruel overlords. In the manner of most propaganda, the characterization is simple, so that the audience could clearly see with whom they should sympathize.The most famous scene in the film is the massacre of civilians on the Odessa Steps (also known as the Primorsky or Potemkin Stairs). In this scene, the Tsar's Cossacks in their white summer tunics march down a seemingly endless flight of steps in a rhythmic, machine-like fashion, slaughtering a crowd, including a young boy, as they flee. After the boy falls, his mother picks up his body and yells at the soldiers to stop firing. They do, only to shoot her minutes later. Toward the end of the sequence, the soldiers shoot a mother who is pushing a baby in a baby carriage. As she falls to the ground, dying, she leans against the carriage, nudging it away; it rolls down the steps amidst the fleeing crowd.After its premiere in Soviet Union, Potemkin was shown in the United States. It was shown in an edited form in Germany, with some scenes of extreme violence edited out by its German distributors. A written introduction by Leon Trotsky was cut from Soviet prints after he ran afoul of Josef Stalin. The film was banned in Nazi Germany, Britain, Spain (though not during the Second Republic), France, and other countries for its revolutionary zeal. It was even banned in the Soviet Union for a short period when the Comintern, for diplomatic reasons, ceased to promote mutiny among the navies of capitalist countries.This product is manufactured on demand using DVD-R recordable media. Amazon.com's standard return policy will apply.